Our Fitness Blog

Mistakes to Avoid in the New Year

It is a new year, and many of us are making those pesky New Year's Resolutions. The number one New Year's Resolution just happens to be losing weight. Who could have guessed that one? Only 8% of people achieve success in achieving their New Year's Resolution, which is most assuredly a really low percentage. So, why do we continue to sabotage ourselves when making these resolutions? It seems as if it is so easy to keep making the same mistakes time after time that it just sort of becomes habit. It is time we break those habits and achieve our goals once in for all.

Take baby steps

Many of us get the idea that we are going to start a fitness routine and do it five days a week, but this can be very unrealistic. You should start out slowly and gradually increase at a comfortable pace. It would be easier to stick to a fitness routine if you start out going two days a week then slowly increase it to three days. Fairly soon you could increase to your original five day a week goal. However, you need to remember this will take time, and many of us are not patient enough to give our goals time. So, push the five days a week of working out to the back of your mind and focus on sticking with and gradually improving your current fitness routine. This ensures that your goals are attainable with a little hard work.

Sabotaging your diet

You can not deny yourself everything you have come to love. Food gives many of us pleasure and denying this pleasure can lead us straight down the path to failure. Many of us are unable to quit eating fattening or sugary foods cold turkey; therefore, it may be best to allow us a few cheats that do not cause us to feel guilty. I am not saying to splurge, but try to do it just like your fitness routine, slow and steady. You can gradually cut back on certain foods, while looking for and experimenting with healthier alternatives. It is important to keep trying to improve our diet, while not getting too hard on ourselves if we end up cheating on our diet.

Have plenty of downtime

Our bodies need to have some downtime to continue to perform at their peak. Not only this, but stress and lack of sleep can cause fat to build up in your body resulting in weight gain. It is just as important to ensure we have enough sleep and eliminate as much stress from our life as it is to exercise and watch our diets. If we schedule enough downtime, not only will we feel better, but we will look better. It can be amazing what a little bit of extra downtime can do for our bodies. It is important to give our bodies the chance to recuperate from our new fitness routines and the stresses of the day. It is a much needed step in your weight loss program.

It may be hard to stick to our New Year's Resolutions, but with a little perseverance and hard work, I know we can all accomplish what we set out to do. We can break all those bad yet tempting habits that seem to be out to sabotage us and realize that we can achieve our goals. It can be the best feeling in the world to know that we did it.